Whispers
by Anisky
Summary: He drove her to the brink of madness, until she gave herself to make it stop. Now she's in the darkness and she doesn't understand the game, the rules, or how to win. A strange continuation of an old oneshot. JS. Completed.
1. Prologue

Title: Whispers  
Author: Anisky  
Email:  
Summary: Jareth is haunting Sarah, and she is trying her hardest not to release his spirit.  
Rating: PG (For darkness)  
Disclaimer: Neither Jareth nor Sarah belong to me; I am making no money off of this.  
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Prologue  
  
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He was there, always, right behind her, leaning so that his lips were against her ear. He was there, always, whispering in her ear, watching everything from behind her. She could see him in the corner of her eye, but only in the corner of her eye; the moment she whirled around her head, he was gone, at first leaving her to wonder if he were there at all. But soon she could have no doubt, he was always there, always, or else she was crazy. She felt his hot breath on her ear as he whispered, whispered, distracting her, making her blush, stammer, stutter, halt, lose her train of thought as he laughed, teased, mocked, toyed, but mostly, endlessly, as he did all of this_, whispered_.

Her life was going down the drain.

Each night, every time she stepped into the bathroom, as she sat on the bus, she pleaded with him, begged, offered anything to him if he would only _stop_. "Say my name Sarah, say my name," he whispered into her ear whenever she did this.

But for some reason, she could not.

"Goblin King," she whispered back, over and over and over, while she was in class, with her friends, in her room, in the park. Teachers stared as she began to whisper it, again and again, a litany to make him go away, to make her life return to the way it was. "Goblin King. Goblin King." She muttered below her breath always, so nobody could hear, nobody would know what she was saying. Her lips moved, almost silently, and if someone listened they could hear the gentle hiss of words being spoken. But not what she was saying.

But it was not good enough.

"My name," he hissed in her ear, his breath suddenly cold, making goose bumps rise on Sarah's flesh. "You know it. Say it."

Yet, endlessly, for some reason, she could not.

Maybe she knew, deep down, that to say his name now would somehow undo those words, so painfully grasped at, those words that slipped through her fingers, her memory, her mind, those words that she could never remember, yet in the nick of time _had_ remembered. Perhaps, deep down, on that level in her mind below what she knew she knew, she had grasped that to say his name now would be to give up that hard-earned right to say those words, to steal Toby back, to assert that _he had no..._

_But he would. _

Oh, he would.

No matter what Sarah knew, deep down in what she might call her heart, we all must know that nobody's subconscious warnings could possibly stand up in the face of that constant torture, the slow whispering that would inevitably drive her insane.

Is it better to be crazy, or to relinquish one's own power over oneself?

Most of us, those of us who are lucky, need never make such a decision.

Sarah Williams was quickly running out of options, as she felt her sanity slowly leaving, as cried and screamed and raged, not caring who watched, not caring if they locked her up, wanting it to end, drawing nearer and nearer to the conclusion that anything, _anything_, was better than this.

Inside, but on the level that she knew that she knew, Sarah was terrified of going crazy, of losing herself, of her grasp on reality slipping until Sarah would only be a shell of what she was, of what she is but is rapidly losing, and knowing that it would be just the same as dying.

And so she felt the word, such a small, simple word, bubble up, starting slowly, following the Goblin King's quiet, whispering coaxing. It was only sitting there in her throat for months, choking her as she tried to speak, and then it made its way to the back of her mouth, gagging her as she tried to breathe or eat, and when she didn't notice it, the Goblin King yet again distracting her, the word slipped onto her tongue. Within a few days, had made it to her lips. Try as she might to contain it, the word pushed its way through her lips and into the world.

"_Jareth_."

He laughed, his voice no longer quiet. With a sinking feeling, in the pit of her stomach, she knew that she had relinquished control of herself. She started shaking, uncontrollably, as Jareth's evil laughter became louder and her grasped her arm. She turned and saw him, actually saw him, as she looked at him dead on; unlike his phantom breath on her ear, his hand grasping her upper arm was harsh, firm, made her wince and cry out as his fingers dug into her skin. She saw his mouth, curled into a smile, not pleasant, no, in fact the least pleasant smile that she had ever seen. His eyes, cold, hard, without mirth, pity, warmth, or humanity.

"What's going to happen to me?" she whispered, terrified. His smile became wider and she could see that he loved her terror, thrived on it, was practically feeding on it and seemed to become even stronger as she broke down into sobs. She spared one last look into his eyes.

And then...

Nothing.


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Whispers

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.

Author: Anisky

Summary: He drove her to the brink of madness, until she gave herself to make it stop. Now she's in the darkness and she doesn't understand the game, the rules, or how to win. J/S

A/N: So, I began this a long time ago unsure whether or not to make it a one-shot. Now I'm continuing it, and it's a bit strange (it _will_ be completed, no doubt at all). It diverges a lot from the prologue, both in style and in spirit. If you want to consider the prologue a one-shot, be my guest. But I hope you'll give try out the rest of this story, too. Please, **please** read and review. Thanks!

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Chapter 1

Sarah awoke, and there was silence.

Silence.

That stunned her and left her baffled for several moments, baffled while waves of relief flooded from the simplistic id part of her mind and washed over her. The relief of silence, the absence of the torturous whispers which had plagued her for weeks months years she didn't even know, they had made time flow together and lengthen and shorten and make no sense at all and drove her to...

What?

Her brain was jumbled, still so stunned by the silence after so long. She embraced the childlike waves of relief telling her that the silence was a good thing, that she was free, that the horrible bad thing that so tortured her was gone, gone, gone, and it was_ good_.

Yet the horrible foreboding feeling and the knot in her stomach reminded Sarah that there was a_ reason _for the whispering that had killed the silence and made her whisper herself in a desperate plea for sanity and life and everything she should have had, some riddle she had not solved, some rhyme she did not reason, that she had bravely _endured_ the whispering, and if it were gone then...

What?

Finally as her swirling battle of relief and worry brushed against her conscious mind, she remembered what had happened.

The Goblin King had taken her away.

_Where?_

Sarah opened her eyes, and it was dark, so dark, pitch dark, like ink and she, having been driven so close to the void of madness that she had felt the cold frost of its tentacles beginning to grasp her, did not know if she were dead or alive or dreaming or if her entire life had been a dream. She had never seen a dark so dark before, she sat up and found herself surprised that the air itself wasn't thicker, dripping the blackest ink across her face.

Or perhaps it was and she simply could not feel it. Did she have a face?

Sarah reached up with her hand and brought it to where she thought her face ought to be. She felt out two eyes, her nose, her mouth, her hair-- all where they ought to be.

She still couldn't get used to the silence. All she had wanted was for the whispering to stop, but to have been accompanied for_ (how long how long how long HOW LONG?) _she found the quiet the alone discomfiting. If there were somebody else, even if it were _Him_, then at least she would know she was real.

The rational bit of her mind told her that wasn't right somehow, but it had been so suppressed lately that it could not tell her quite why that was wrong, so it said was swept up in the whirlwind of her confusion and generally ignored.

Next, the rational bit of her mind offered that she could feel what her surroundings were like, and Sarah liked this idea better, as it was much easier to do.

It was a cushion beneath her, quite comfortable actually. She brought her hands down and ran them across the surface of whatever she was sitting on. It was soft, pleasant, but that was all she could figure out. That was enough, for now, and she spent several minutes running her hands along the fabric and enjoying the feel before she decided that she ought to do something else.

She consulted the rational bit of her mind, which was growing stronger with the silence, and it supposed she could call out to see if anybody were there.

It might be Him, of course, so she paused for a few moments and waited to see if something else would happen first. Everything stayed silent and completely dark, so it seemed there was nothing else to do.

"Hello?" she called out. Her voice was still rough from the_ (how long HOW LONG WHY COULD SHE NOT FIGURE IT OUT!) _of whispering constantly. (How long had she been here, asleep?)

For a moment, nothing happened. She felt a sharp fear that she would be here, in this dark silent place forever, and then she thought that after the whispering that would be good, but then there was just more silence and she thought that might drive her crazy too and the whispering would be better, but when there was whispering she had just wanted silence and...

The barely rising panic was briefly settled as she felt small change on whatever it was she was sitting on and she knew that someone had to be there.

It spiked again as she realized that it was probably _Him_, the Goblin King, but she wanted to know what had happened so...

She regained enough control to take a deep, calming breath, and ventured more softly: "Hello?"

So he responded, in that voice, that... it had been a whisper so long that she did not know what to think when this time it was a voice. It was a mocking honey sly malicious sensual cruel dangerous compelling powerful (could it be all that at once? Sarah thought probably not but she did not have the energy to bother too long) voice, and goosebumps raised across her body in terror, but it was there and so she was real (that wasn't right). "Hello, Sarah."

She swallowed and hugged herself, trying to fight down the horrible thing that was creeping up her stomach into her chest. "Where am I?"

He laughed in that mocking honey sly malicious sens-_NO _it couldn't be all those things and to think it was would only scare her more and make him seem bigger and she refused to think any more about his laugh except that it was there, which even though that wasn't right was still a comfort and Sarah did not feel she was in any position to refuse a comfort on the mere grounds of logic. Especially since she could not seem to clear her head enough to sort it out.

"You," he said in a low voice that Sarah refused to describe more than that, "are in my Kingdom."

Information, but not very useful. Still, it told her that she was not dead, or a dream, nonexistant, an illusion.

Actually, she could be imagining this voice just as much as she could be--

_NO, NO, STOP_, she was not going to think her way out of existence. She was here and there was something else and she was not going to make herself into an illusion.

"I think," Sarah informed the Goblin King, "I'm a bit insane."

Another laugh, but though Sarah waited that was all.

"Are you real?" she asked him curiously.

Suddenly, she felt something against her arm, and she flinched, startled. It was a hand, too smooth to be a real hand (he wore gloves, she remembered suddenly), wrapping around her arm. Her heart thumped for a few moments, and then he replied:

"Oh, yes, dear Sarah, I assure you, I am _very_ real."

She frowned, since she knew that her imagination would probably say that, but she didn't think that the Goblin King would like to hear that.

"Why did you make me say your name?" she asked next. His hand was still on her arm. She tried to pull away but it just tightened. She thought that he would probably give another vague answer, but to her surprise--

"Goblin King is my title," he murmured. It was not a whisper but it was close enough to one to make her flinch in memory. His mouth was close to her ear and she could feel the warmth of his breath upon it, and she wanted to move away but was frozen in her unsureness. "It refers to my position. If there were another Goblin King, it would refer to him. To simply say it without an attached wish is simply invoking a position, which is meaningless. A_ position _cannot do anything."

It wasn't an answer, yet, but he kept speaking.

"My name, on the other hand," (even though she had promised herself before that she would not attach emotions to his voice because she chose so many that they could not all make sense, she thought that his voice was mostly _amused_ right now or no actually that was not quite right it was _smug_), "invokes me. I, personally, can do plenty."

Sarah furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of this. Her rational mind was hopping around in what could only be described as frantic excitement, and she decided that since it was so _very_ enthusiastic about this piece of information, and she herself could not make heads or tails of it, she should let it take over. This resulted in her blurting out, "The forces of magic only allow one referent per sense!"

His laugh was almost entirely amused now and there was only a hint of cruel malicious sly honey sensual _NO, STOP!_ She sat and listened to it, drawing comfort from the first sound she had heard in a long time that was more genuine than calculated.

"I believe that were you in full control of your faculties," he eventually spoke in the wake of her silence, "that after you spent quite a large amount of time cursing at me, screaming at me that I was not being fair, and demanding that I take you back home, you would ask _why_ I wished for you to invoke me."

Yes, that was a good question. She was currently, however, more preoccupied with a different question. "Why is it so dark in here?" she asked instead.

"I keep all my cells dark."

Sarah frowned. Was she in a cell then? "Do all of your cells have such soft beds?" She ran her fingers along the soft material again.

"No," the Goblin King responded. "You aren't in a cell."

Sarah's fingers, as they ran along the bed (at least, that's what she supposed it was), accidently brushed against the Goblin King's leg. She pulled away quickly, but he gave a deep chuckle low in his throat. His hand stopped gripping her arm and began to stroke it.

She knew there was a logical flaw in his answer. It frustrated her that it was so much more difficult to think than it should be. It was like her mind was wrapped in cotton then separated into many little bits. "Then why is it dark?"

"Habit, I suppose, with new captives," he told her. "Not to mention that you were sleeping for quite some time."

"How long?" she asked.

"Time works differently in the Underground, even if I told you it would mean little to you."

Okay. "Why didn't you turn on lights when you arrived?"

"_I_ have no trouble seeing in this room."

Oh. Sarah shivered again, realizing that he could see her every reaction, her every move, while she was completely blind. It wasn't fair. It was odd that she knew not to say that when she was crazy. Or was she not crazy anymore? Wouldn't it take longer than this to recover from madness? Or perhaps things worked differently in the Labyrinth.

Or, of course, this all could be an illusion dream imagination death.

She wondered for a few moments if he would turn on lights if she asked nicely, and then realized that she might as well just try it and see. "Could you turn on the lights, please?" she asked.

He laughed again. "You are quite amusing when you are mad," he informed her casually, removing his hand from her arm and reaching up to stroke her hair. She pulled away but he continued. "So very distractible. You keep worrying about the little questions and dart from this to that without pursuing what matters. But you do seem to be recovering quickly. I am glad it won't last. It is endearing in a childlike way, but I believe I would come to find your insanity tiresome after a while. Though it makes you delightfully mellow right now."

She didn't know what to say in response to his speech. The feeling of his gloved fingers stroking her hair felt quite nice, and she knew that this whole thing was wrong and she should be struggling against him, somehow, have a mission and be fighting like last time, but she didn't know what. To just push him away didn't seem like it would do any good since she didn't know where she was or if there were a Labyrinth or if any of the rules were the same at all. So she let his hands feel good.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Where am I? Why did you bring me here?" Sarah had no idea how long she had been in this place. She remembered sleeping and dreaming bright, colorful dreams, but could not recall what they were.

"Ah, she finally comes to the crux of the matter." She found that if she remembered the honey dangerous sly cruel compelling mocking powerful sensual cruel and just pretended that was part of his voice then it was okay to put different things on top of it and it made sense-- well made more sense, she thought, she still couldn't be quite sure of anything. He sounded unconcerned and drawling this time, she decided. "Tell me, Sarah, how did you enjoy my Labyrinth?"

"It was a piece of cake," she remembered the words softly, rolling them around in her mind and letting them out into the darkness though it was not an answer to the question, or at least she did not think it was, she did not think that an answer was an echo without anything to bounce off of a desperate mask back when such a thing was necessary, but was not now. Or was it?

Every time she'd said that, she remembered, something bad had happened. She flinched, expecting something perhaps, but nothing changed, the King's fingers did not even stop stroking along her hair. How much did she remember of the Labyrinth? A lot, or at least she thought she did. It was the last real experience before the whispering began, and it was constantly in her mind during the whispering. Of course it was, the whispering was her punishment for winning, and she was only here now because she gave in. She tried to imagine being back in the real world now, not having given in, being plagued and going to school or sitting at home and crying and holding her ears and praying for peace. She shuddered and found herself curling up into herself. It was a horrifying thought. She was, she realized, _glad_ she gave in. She would a million times rather be here in the dark in the quiet and peaceful than give any more to resistance. She thought it and felt it completely and remembered herself enough to be ashamed, especially as the gentle fingers on her neck so soothing were attached to the same horrible whispering that had made everything so cluttered shaky noisy distressing impossible addled frantic, but could not take it back in her mind and did not have the energy to try.

She remembered how to give maybe a real answer, and the Goblin King had not said anything else so he probably still wanted to know. "I was afraid," she said, "but I liked my friends. I'd liked them more in thirteen hours than the friends I had fifteen years to make. I-- I wasn't so afraid of the Labyrinth. I wasn't, I don't think, really… it was… my brother as a goblin. And-- and you."

Silence from the Goblin King upon this confession. Sarah hung her head, and one of his gloved fingertips found its way under her chin and lifted it up, but that was all.

"The Labyrinth itself, I was… curious. I loved fantasy. I loved being in the fantasy world. I love being the heroine and having the people of the kingdom love me. You-- I couldn't make up my mind about you. Why I am telling you this?"

She didn't expect an answer, but he supplied one. "Because you are mad, of course," he told her casually.

"I feel better now," she informed him solemnly. "Aren't I making sense?"

"Yes, you are, and if you were not better you would not even question telling me. But please, continue."

Sarah was uncertain. "I think I wouldn't want to tell you."

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that none of this is real?"

"No, it would not," she replied sternly, furrowing her brow. "It would confuse me and mess everything up again. Now you've gone and thrown everything off again!" She paused, and asked quietly "…_are_ you real?"

Once more the Goblin King laughed, sounded entirely genuinely amused. The sound rang out suddenly and sharply, and Sarah let out a squeak of surprise. It served as a slight reassurance, however, since she was so surprised, a Goblin King in her head would probably not have done something to surprise her. Maybe. Right?

The chuckle stirred oddly through the darkness. It seemed to spread out and disappear into the black, as though they were within a block of being unconnected with anything else so that sound was dampened and disappeared-- or perhaps that there were just nothing around to bounce off of-- yet at the same time it seemed to reverberate richly and surround her from all sides. Sarah found herself noting for what felt like the millionth time that it simply didn't _make sense_. She considered briefly that it was just the Labyrinth, or wherever she was, that didn't work the way she was used to, but it couldn't make a noise echo and _not-echo _at the same time, could it? That _had _to be her insanity, right?

All of this flew through her head within a moment and the King was speaking again.

"Oh, Sarah," he spoke airily. "You cannot have been so frightened, to admonish me now." He did not seem to expect an answer, and soon simply said, "continue. You loved to be the heroine. You loved your friends. You were unsure of the King of the Goblins-- why?"

"He was the villain, but he was the King and I kept mistaking him for the prince. He sang to me, he danced with me," Sarah spoke as though she were not talking to the object of her contemplation, and spoke dreamily, "he was cruel and he was kind-- he said it himself-- he offered me my dreams, but it was he I was fighting against, he who stole my brother, he who cheated and stole away my time, but he was handsome like the prince and danced with me."

"He said," the Goblin King's voice was low, unlike itself, coming from him but not really, simply prompting her, urging her on, and she obeyed without thinking--

"--fear me, love me, and I already did," Sarah finished softly. "I already did both. But do as he said-- I could not. I couldn't even consider it-- I had to concentrate on my brother, if I forgot about that for a moment then I might forget that he was the villain, not the prince, and the happy ending was to defeat him, not to…"

"To what?" There was hardly any sly honey at all. The voice was just loud enough to not be a whisper and scare her, remind her,

"I…" Sarah realized that there were no longer any gloved fingers touching her, but she could not remember when they had stopped. She had no way of knowing if she were simply alone with a phantom voice. She searched her mind to the answer to the question. It was an easy question, wasn't it? What happened at the end of fairy tales? "I don't know," finally slipped out from between her lips in a wondering voice. "What happens in fairy tales? They fall in love, and then… that's just where it always ends. They live happily ever after." Sarah frowned and hugged herself. "I… I suppose they get married, but I wasn't thinking of that. They… I don't know. The story is over then, I guess."

Pause. Sarah felt a soft shiver, as though there were a sudden draft, except that the air was perfectly still. Too still, she thought for a moment, and the unnatural dormancy of the air made her feel suffocated for just a moment, as though it were impossible to breathe. Was she even breathing before? Was there air in this place at all? She couldn't remember, and right now, she couldn't tell. She held up a hand in front of her lips and blew out hard. She felt the push of the air against her palm.

"The story is over, indeed." Sarah unexpectedly found herself wishing for Jareth's hands again, but they were still not present as he spoke and she did not know how he would react if she reached out for him. Anyway, she could not quit shake the apprehension that were she to that were she to stretch out her arms, he would not be there. The premise that there was somebody corporeal next to her, regardless of who it might be, was too comforting just then to risk shattering. "The same applied, I suppose, to when you won your baby brother back?"

"No-o-o-o," replied Sarah hesitatingly, "then I thought, I guess, I would go back to my old life, and keep on living that."

"Just the same, untouched by your fantasy world?" Was he still next to her? She strained to tell but the motion of the sound through this perplexing air was unfamiliar and unhelpful.

"Not… entirely…" Falter. Think. "More mature. A better sister to Toby, maybe. An understanding with Karen. Leaving behind childhood, making more friends at school."

"So mundane?" His voice snaked around her. "No, no, not quite, I think… Perhaps a wisdom in your eyes? Something to entrance the young men, the hint that you have seen mysterious things, accomplished your fantastic quest? A quiet superiority from knowing a truth hidden from all the others?"

How could he know that? How could he know so much as to speak truths to her that she had not even spoken to herself? Or maybe they weren't truths. Maybe they just sounded real in the darkness. But they sounded so _right_.

"And I think…" he continued speaking with a relish, as though he were a connoisseur describing a fine wine, "…a yearning for something more? A dissatisfaction with those boys chasing after you, the knowledge that they are… incomplete?"

"Why would I wish for dissatisfaction?" she asked him.

"Am I wrong?"

No. She didn't say anything. She wished she knew where he was so that she could look away. She turned her head away from the direction where his hand had come from before.

"What about your friends?" he asked her. "Do they continue, after the story is over?"

"Yes," Sarah told him.

"How?"

"I call them when I need them."

"And they come? When you need them?"

"Yes."

"How do they feel about that?"

Sarah was confused. "What?"

"They don't mind appearing, at your beck and call, simply popping up when you demand it and fade away when you do not?"

Sarah winced and stared off into the darkness. She still could not see a thing. She felt her breath catch in her throat and she unexpectedly felt the urge to cry at the cruel twisting of her agreement with her friends. She suppressed it viciously, hoping that the childish impulse could not be seen on her face. "We're friends. They want to be there to help."

"And would you do the same for them?"

"Of course!" Sarah cried out.

"In that future, Sarah." Her name sounded strange from his lips-- was it coming from his lips? It was, she thought wonderingly to herself, like a harsh and hissing caress. "When you go home to your happy family and your boyfriends whom you are better than and your friends whom you know more than. Do the coward, the oaf, and the harebrained fool call on _you_ for help?"

He was harsh and she wanted to hide. She was sure that her hurt and her terror shone on her face. She had always felt safe in the dark, never having been frightened of the monster under the bed (not that she did not believe that it might be there, but she always imagined that _it _was afraid of the light and perhaps if she unlike the other children did _not_ ask her father to chase it out from under the bed, it would stay and come out at night and tell her things about the fantasy world from which it came). But knowing that it was all obscure concealment for her yet this brutal acerbic abasement could see anything she did as clearly as though it were daylight made it seem oppressive for the first time in her life. She wondered if he could read her mind, see her thoughts, but she banished the thought almost before she had begun to think it. The mere idea nearly paralyzed her in fright and shame, and if it were true she did not want to know.

"I… I don't know," she managed to choke out an answer to the question. "I don't control what happens, after all."

"Oh, so the worlds do not revolve around Sarah Williams, after all? Come now, I cannot believe that."

It made the awful brutal tearing down of herself that much more unbearable, that this voice had _known her_. She remembered before when it (oh she tried so hard to forget who it was for that would only make it all the worse, _it_, not he, it, _it_) had articulated so clearly those dreams that she had not even sung to herself. Of course she hadn't the chance to see them through because the whispering began and it was all she could do to hold onto sanity, or a piece of it. She could not let go of that tinge of dubiety nagging that perhaps she was simply insane and dreaming all of this up in a white padded room somewhere.

It was actually a nice thought-- the relentless whispering had not been real and now the acrid accusations were not, either. Perhaps the entire Labyrinth had been a product of her dementia.

The King of the Goblins was much easier to face when thought of as a product of her own imagination, so Sarah decided to embrace the worry as her salvation. Perhaps this was even a dream, simply her own subconscious's way of working out her aversion to growing up and all the _normal_ problems that came with being a teenager.

Usually being normal would not have comforted Sarah, but these were, she reminded herself, highly unusual circumstances.

Being as this voice was really just her own subconscious, she really might as well answer it, she decided. "You aren't being fair. I can't control what goes on in my head, after all," she insisted staunchly. "A person's expectations of their lives _always _revolve around themselves. It's my life, after all, why shouldn't it be about me? It's not _fair_ that you're judging me as self-centered based on fantasies of the future I hadn't even thought of yet."

"Mmmm. As fascinating as your assessment of the state of justice always is, such a defense would be much more convincing if you had not convinced yourself that I am merely a device your mind came up with to help you deal with your own petty problems."

Her heart stopped. He _could _see her thoughts. She felt pure unadulterated panic flow through her veins in the form of adrenaline as she desperately searched for some way _out _of this nightmare, but came up empty-handed.

"Please stop," she whimpered.

"It was you who decided to make this into a personal attack, Sarah," Jareth said smoothly. "I was simply trying to ascertain what you thought would happen after your trip through my Labyrinth was through. I think you've had enough excitement for now, hmm? Why don't I leave you to sleep." His voice was neutral, cold even, but simply the lack of vitriolic accusation was reassuring to a girl who had just been a panicking caged animal. It was the offer of a respite from the inescapable attacks, and she took it gladly. She didn't even bother to note in her mind that the voice was really not quite being fair.

Sarah could not tell when he was gone, but did not want to call out for him. She just laid back and closed her eyes, once again dreaming strangely, beautiful vivid dreams that she could not understand.


	4. Chapter 3

Title: Whispers

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.

Author: Anisky

Summary: He drove her to the brink of madness, until she gave herself to make it stop. Now she's in the darkness and she doesn't understand the game, the rules, or how to win. J/S

A/N: Thanks so much to all my reviewers! Sorry I didn't thank you in the previous chapter-- I just got a new computer so figuring out how to get the editing to work on was a bit difficult. Stay tuned for thanks at the end though!

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Chapter 3

"While I was on my way through, all I really thought about was getting my brother back," she admitted. "Anything else was just at the back of my mind, could be dealt with later, after my… my quest was fulfilled."

"Well then, how very fortuitous that _now_ qualifies," his voice ceased to be disembodied in her mind as the tone simply could _not_ be unaccompanied by a smirk. She could imagine his face only vaguely-- she had seen him only out of the corners of her eyes for that seemingly eternal stretch of time, probably only having ended a few hours or perhaps days ago but now firmly entrenched in the recesses of _long, long ago_, which her mind was beginning to dub 'the Whispering'. "So let us continue our discussion. You have solved the Labyrinth and bested the King of the Goblins at his own game. You expected to return to your old life, wiser and more mature perhaps, making better decisions, but fundamentally the same. Did you really expect to be satisfied with that?"

"Yes."

"Oh?" She imagined him elegantly raising an eyebrow, as she had seen him do during her journey through the Labyrinth.

Sarah hesitated.

Could he read her mind? If so, could he see what she was thinking and speculate from there, or did his insights cut deeper than her own? He did not respond to the thought, but that did not mean that he did not know of it. It didn't mean that he didn't, either, and Sarah knew that she would be much more comfortable (comparatively speaking, of course) believing that he could _not_ know what she was thinking any more than any perceptive and intelligent person would.

"At first I would just be glad that I had managed to save Toby, proud that I had such a mysterious adventure, content to see my friends and hear from them about the fantasy world," Sarah decided to simply be honest, as there was really nothing else to do besides talk here, anyway, and perhaps cooperating would ward off another alarming emotional attack. "I never thought beyond that."

"On the surface," he pressed.

She nodded, then she felt silly that she would nod when it was dark, remembered that he could see after all, and felt silly for having felt silly.

"Earlier, you admitted that you would have been dissatisfied after a while. Why?"

"You're the one who said it," Sarah felt strangely sulky. She realized suddenly that she was standing, though she could not for the life of her remember actually standing up. The ground beneath her feet felt solid, though she knew that she had been sitting on a soft cushion like surface before. "How am I supposed to know?"

"They're your dreams."

"If I'm so selfish and just think the world revolves around me too much, why do you care so much about my dreams?"

"Perhaps it does."

_His hair was silly, _Sarah thought irrelevantly. "What do you want from me?"

"Why would you have been dissatisfied, Sarah?"

She gave up and decided to cooperate. She imagined it: Going out on dates. A nice boy with dark hair and nice eyes she meets in college. He kisses her and tells her he loves her. She says she loves him too. They get married and live in a nice house.

"It's boring," she answered both the voice and herself as the words made their way through their queer echo-not-echo.

"Not enough excitement after your fleeting taste of adventure as a teenager? You are in need of another adventure, perhaps?"

Sarah supposed so.

"What kind of adventure do you go on, Sarah?" Was it just her imagination, or had the Goblin King's voice taken on a slightly urgent note?

"Well," she spoke slowly, considering, "it could be a lot of things. Maybe it would be the Labyrinth again, but for a different reason. I wouldn't wish somebody away again." She paused. "It wouldn't need to be the Labyrinth, but it could be."

"Would your friends be there?"

"Yes. All of them. I would meet new friends, too, on the way. I wouldn't just be running the Labyrinth again-- it would be something new, that I haven't even thought of yet." Sarah found herself becoming exhilarated as she spoke. "Reliving a story was enough as a child, but when I'm older I would discover new things, beyond the boundaries of the book and into new lands, unexpected creatures… And… when I ran the Labyrinth the first time, I knew exactly what I had to do. The same thing as in the book, and anyway you told me-- find my way to the center of the maze, say the words. This time it wouldn't be so planned out. I--we--wouldn't know exactly what was happening at first, or how to solve things. We would have to figure it out as we went."

"And the illustrious man in your life? Does he participate?"

"…Yes." Sarah tried to imagine her good-tempered boy with kind eyes in her fantasy world. No matter how she tried to make it fit, it didn't work. "Well, no."

"No? Why ever not?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

Sarah pursed her lips and considered. "He's… a very nice guy. Nice capable hands. And funny. He makes people laugh. But he's very down to earth. I'm too flighty. I want to be an actress, but I know how hard it is to make it in the real world. I'm a dreamer, so I want him to keep me grounded. He's the nice, dependable one, doing something realistic so that we can have a house and food and support children. He likes that I'm a dreamer. He thinks it's cute, he finds it endearing, but he doesn't understand. He'd be lost in a fantasy world."

"Nice." Jareth's voice was completely flat, empty. It didn't even have that strange echo. "Dependable. _Funny_." The last word finally had emotion as he spat it out in complete disgust, as though it were something repulsive, much more vile than a mere word (and a rather pleasant word at that, Sarah thought).

"What?" Sarah asked in confusion.

"Is this how you value your dreams?" Hands grabbed her shoulders roughly and she cried out in surprise at the sudden shock of contact. He had not touched her in so long and his sudden brutal grip caught her by surprise. "Is that what you turned me down for? Down to earth? Makes people _laugh_? _Realistic_?"

Something in his tone sent a deep pain welling up throughout her body, though Sarah did not understand why. It left an empty, aching feeling somewhere in her chest, and it was all that she could do not to weep.

"I--I--" Sarah swallowed and tried to speak, but in the face of such strong, fathomless emotion any words at all seemed inadequate and the words that came out sounded particularly lame. "You said I was dissatisfied," she whispered to him.

He gave a growling sound, a rough fury and misery rumbling low in his throat.

"It's not even real!" she screamed at him suddenly, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "You told me to make it up and I _am_! None of it's_ happened_!"

"It's what you looked forward to as you dismissed me without a second thought!" If Sarah had thought he had sounded harsh before, it was nothing compared the bitterness his voice held now. His fingers dug into her arms and it sent her over the edge, an anguished cry escaping from between her lips as she felt sobs wracking her body without even being sure _why_.

Her knees gave out and she began to collapse to the floor. As she keeled over she heard his sharp intake of breath right before two strong arms encircled her, lifting her up, pulling her firmly but gently against a lean, warm body. One hand pressed against her cheek, pushing her head against his chest. She kept crying as she clung to him for dear life. He stroked her hair gently. "Shh," he whispered to her. It was said without a hint of mocking, without a hint of malice, and it reminded Sarah of the strangeness of the moment.

"Why are you being so nice?" she whispered back, tears subsiding as she stood in the comforting embrace.

"I do not know." His voice was unguarded now. Sarah had no idea what to think. "I didn't expect to reveal so much, so soon. I find myself quite vexingly unable to keep to my plans in your presence."

"What have you revealed? I don't understand," Sarah whispered, closing her eyes, desperately to understand what was happening.

"You are still mad," disgust crept into his voice again and Sarah gasped in terror as he moved to extricate himself from his grip.

She clung to him for dear life, "No, please, no, don't go! I'm sorry! I don't mean to be! I'm sorry I'm so disgusting to you!"

To her infinite, indescribable relief, he remained, tightening his arms around her again. "Sarah, Sarah, it was not you who disgusted me, I promise you. It is I who drove you mad, after all."

But Sarah didn't mind, she couldn't mind, not when there was such an aching in her heart and there was nobody but him in her world. "Please, make me understand," she begged him.

He hesitated for a very long time, so long that for a moment she wondered if he would answer at all. Finally, he spoke.

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A/N: Ah, finally the King displays emotions!

Anyway, a great big THANK YOU to all my lovely reviewers: **Rai Medvedsky**- (x2)thanks for reviewing twice, and so quickly! You were always my first review and it made me very happy. :) Glad to know that my attempts to get across Sarah's insanity through her odd mental processes worked! Thanks! **White Rose Withering**- (x2)you too, to the reviewing twice, always a first review! it's very exciting, **Lake of Fire**- Hey, if my fic isn't coherent, your review doesn't have to be! I'm glad you're liking it. I hope it continues to stay unique-- it's really tough in the Labyverse, to stop from rehashing the same basic plot over and over. **Anij**(x2)-haha, yes it was, but we all know our sexy Jareth is very cruel, **Mikki**-:) Again, glad to know my attempts at her mental state and at a change from most Laby fics have been working! **Siorsa**-Hope as Sarah becomes a bit more coherent/sane it continues to be intriguing. I'll try to look out for the hes and hers, thanks-- feel free to point any out if I miss them, they're hard to spot during a quick once-over. **Stella Cosmopolita**- has this been soon enough:) **anon**, **enchantednight84**, **Forevermore33**(x2), **GreyKing**(x2)- seeing as it's nothing but their interactions (and Sarah's with herself), that's certainly a saving grace:-D Thanks, **Hidden Rose**- Sorry, I'd wanted to get author's notes and thanks up but my access to internet was nebulous, at best, so I took it down wanting to edit it to have that stuff but ultimately decided that getting the chater to you was more important than the paperwork. ;) **anon** possibly the same as before, but hard to say, **darkcatlover**, **alias-allia**-sorry, it's all already written and it's currently without sex scenes-- that could theoretically change in a rewrite, once there it would make sense in context with very little change, but as of now... sorry :P, **katiebabs**.

Please leave a contribution in the little box! 


	5. Chapter 4

Title: Whispers

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.

Author: Anisky

Summary: He drove her to the brink of madness, until she gave herself to make it stop. Now she's in the darkness and she doesn't understand the game, the rules, or how to win. J/S

A/N: Nearing the end, only one chapter to go. Thank you so much for the reviews everybody!

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Chapter 4

Sarah waited, and the moment before Jareth spoke felt much longer than a normal moment. It was like the entire universe paused before he spoke, acknowledging the gravity of the moment, when more than she realized would be revealed to her.

Were they even in the same universe as everybody else? As _anybody_ else?

Then, he began.

"The game was never meant to be won. A fundamental flaw, really, but then nobody had even come close. Solving the Labyrinth, that was fine. Nobody had before, but it would have not been… the end of the world." His words held an ironic tinge that Sarah tried to comprehend, but could not until he continued talking and things suddenly, awfully came together in her head. "Technically, you see, the moment you stepped into my castle, you won. All that was asked was that you solve the Labyrinth, after all. From that moment, I had to release Toby. But you... you were another story. I had time, and I took it, determined not to let you go."

Sarah's stomach dropped into her feet, and she could not stop a small gasp from escaping her lips.

"Yes. You understand now, don't you?" he asked, voice still holding its bitter edge. "I recklessly forced your hand, and in doing so forced you to say the words that would destroy my kingdom."

Sarah was dizzy from such an overload of information that she was sure that had she vision, it would be swimming. She only remained standing due to Jareth's arms, still supporting her from all sides. "Then… my friends… the city… the goblins…"

"Gone."

No.

No!

It was just too horrible. Her friends were gone—and _she_ had killed them. "But… you're still here."

"I was the force behind all those things. I was never a _part _of it."

"But then-- you were left--" Realization dawned on Sarah, and she knew what he would say before the words came from around her.

"With you," he confirmed. "An echo of a ghost in your world, seen only by you."

"Then where are we now?" How did he take her here, steal her away, if he had been trapped himself?

"In… an inbetween place. The place where dreams take form. A drawing room, if you will."

Sarah did not quite understand that, but she was not sure she ever would, so she searched for more lucid truths instead.

"Is that why it had to be your name? Not just because the position of Goblin King wasn't specific enough-- but because it didn't exist anymore?"

Pause. "Yes."

"Why couldn't you just tell me?" Sarah demanded, suddenly angry. She pushed against Jareth's chest, squirming to escape his arms, and although she knew he was much stronger than she was she felt his arms fall away yieldingly. He let her back away. "Why did you have to put me through that _torture_?"

Jareth's voice was steel cold, ice. "It was necessary."

"Necessary!" she screamed at him, wishing she knew where he was well enough to hit him. Which reminded her-- "turn on the damn lights already!"

"I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't? You can see!" Sarah cried accusingly. "I want to stop being blind! You fucking drove me crazy, literally, you bastard, it's the least you can do!"

"_I can't_!" he finally shouted back at her. Sarah did her best to ignore the pain in his voice. He should feel pain, she thought spitefully. He put me through much worse.

"Why not? What, you could whisper at me nonstop for months, but you can't produce a little light?" She was out of breath, and rasped the last word instead of spitting it out hatefully, as she had intended.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," he said heavily. "Really, I am. But it was necessary."

"Necessary." She said the word dully. Sarah didn't have enough energy left to scream. "Why was it necessary?"

"You couldn't have been reborn to be what you will be from what you were, before."

"What was I?"

"Human," was all he said.

Sarah inhaled sharply. "Aren't I now?"

There was a long pause. "No."

"Then what am I?" Sarah's voice held no emotion. She knew that it should matter more to her, but she didn't seem to have room for anything besides numbness.

There was no answer. She waited for a long time, until it was obvious that Jareth had no intention of telling her. She didn't care enough to argue about her humanity.

So she turned to other matters. "I didn't need to be reborn," she told the Gobl—Jareth.

"My world needed you to be." He sounded indifferent. He'd somehow managed infuse a shrug into his words, and it irritated Sarah, that he would be so dismissive of her life.

"What about _my _world?" she demanded.

"Your world didn't need you, Sarah."

She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes, although there was no difference in how much she could see. She wished that she could argue with him, and it burned her that she could not. He was right. Nobody had needed her.

She felt terribly bleak as she asked, "Am I going to just be stuck in the dark forever?"

"No."

Sarah waited, expecting him to continue, to explain, but he did not.

"How?"

"What sort of adventure would you have, when you returned to the Labyrinth?"

"This game again? What the hell is your problem? Why are you doing this?" Sarah stamped her foot in frustration.

"Please, Sarah." His voice was soft. "You will understand in time. I promise you this. I-- I thought I had to do it the hard way. I thought I had to pull everything out of you by force, by trickery."

"This is trickery," she insisted, folding her arms petulantly.

For a moment he sounded like the old mocking sly honey malice he'd been before. "Do you want to be suddenly dropped into chaos, Sarah? Do you want to turn everything around again? I've told you before, I've been generous with you. I can just as easily be cruel. I do not wish to go back to attacking you, to nurturing your insanity, to squeezing what I need from you by making you too terrified of me to think of doing anything but warding off my anger, or too in awe of me to imagine you can refuse." His voice was darkly, deadly serious. It made Sarah's heart flutter in fear and she was forced to admit to herself that it would be all too easy for him to throw her back into the emotional turmoil of-- she didn't even know how long anymore.

He did have power over her. She hated it but she could not deny it. In the midst of her twisting thoughts, Sarah found herself suddenly bewildered that the great Goblin King-- no, he was not that any longer-- that Jareth, who had such control over her feelings and emotions and world, even in the lack of his own, was leaving behind his advantage to be honest with her.

It might not be true. This might be another ploy, more trickery. She had no way of knowing that he was sincere. But, though she wasn't she why, she found that she believed he was.

So she let out a deep, whooshing breath that left her empty. She drew in another breath and, she wasn't quite sure why, did what he asked. She delved into her imagination and spoke. "The Labyrinth is in danger. Something dark has been happening to it. So-- yes, my friends call on me to help."

"Why do I not protect my kingdom?" Jareth was prompting her, not arguing.

"Because-- because at first, you don't care," she said wildly. "Or-- you don't even notice. At first everybody just thought that it was becoming overgrown, because-- because you haven't been paying attention to your Kingdom like you should have. You've been withdrawing from it."

"Because of you," he supplied when she stopped speaking. "Because I can't stop thinking of you."

She had been afraid to say it, but now that he had she left it there, though she refused to dwell on it long enough to consider what it might mean. "Um. Yes. But that's not what's causing it, at least, not directly. A King-- no, a Prince-- from another kingdom, has decided that since you appear to be weakened, he can take your kingdom by force. But first, since he knows that the Labyrinth is the best defense you have-- how could you march an army through that thing?-- he's starting by turning your own defenses against you."

"Do you stay in the Labyrinth during this quest?"

"No… I go to other lands too, like I said before. My friends and I have to confront him before he gets to the Labyrinth." She was leaving Jareth out. She didn't know what he'd be doing during all of this, when she came back, but she knew she couldn't keep a story she was spinning on the fly completely without holes, so she ignored it.

"What other creatures are there?"

"Oh-- there are more dwarfs, like Hoggle. He left them because he-- no, his father betrayed them. He was banished as well. That's why he was so bitter and said he didn't need friends. Oh, dragons, too," Sarah breathed, imagining them. "Huge, green and blue, with shining scales. I only see them from afar, though. They're vicious if they think you're endangering their young, but they don't attack if you leave them alone." She paused, lost in thought, considering the possibilities. "You don't know I've returned, at first. Hoggle brought me back secretly. He stole one of your crystals. It should have just disappeared but you weren't paying attention like you used to, and your magic was leaking. But you find out I'm back-- oh, sometime very dramatic."

So Sarah spun her tale, going on, speaking into the darkness as Jareth sat, listening, occasionally prompting her with new questions whenever she faltered. In the complete dark, with the edges of madness yet to recede from her entirely, her imagination was let completely free and she felt like she could almost see the scenes happening, as she described them.

She spoke for a very, very long time. She knew that at one point, Jareth lifted her up and put her back into bed. She fell asleep and dreamt fantastically vivid dreams and woke up in the darkness sometime later and he was there, and she kept telling her story until she fell asleep again, greeted with dreams of her words until she woke up and continued.

It went that way for long, long, so much time that Sarah lost track again and again. Only this time she lost track of everything-- of life, of time of the idea of time, of the fact that there had ever been anything else besides darkness and her words and Him.

Then, one day, she woke up slowly, feeling warmth on her face. She opened her eyes and had to squint as her eyes beheld sunlight, streaming through a window high on the wall.

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A/N: A great big thank you to my amazing amazing reviewers: **Lake of Fire**- oooh… one part of your review made me grin very, very evilly. You'll almost definitely know why in the last chapter (the next one), ** White Rose Withering**, **Rai Medvedsky**-yes, we certainly do, ** marajade179**, **Anij**- sorry! hides I guess if I tell you that I had the whole thing written in advance and decided chapter endings pretty arbitrarily based most only page number, you'd be more upset, not less, right? …ok then, never mind, **GreyKing**, **EmpressofUnderbed**, **Forevermore33**- nope, I think she's becoming a lot saner, I just hope that the more sensical writing style that goes with that doesn't take away from this story, **crystal13moon**, **Masako Moonshade**- wow, you definitely have me blushing! Thank you! People tend to be a bit unhappy because I don't like writing sex scenes—not really a moral thing, just not usually my taste—so it's nice to know that some people actually like that, **dawn1**, **Lady Kiren**- don't worry, it's all written, but just one chapter to go…


	6. Chapter 5

Title: Whispers

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.

Author: Anisky

Summary: He drove her to the brink of madness, until she gave herself to make it stop. Now she's in the darkness and she doesn't understand the game, the rules, or how to win. J/S

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Chapter 5

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"Jareth!" Sarah cried joyfully. "I can see!"

She could, indeed-- she could see the walls of the room they were in, chiseled stone, but well furnished with tapestries and furniture, exactly the way she'd imagined a room of a castle to be. The sunlight which flowed through the windows on one side of the room.

And she could see Jareth, sitting in a chair near her bed. She looked down at herself, dressed in a simple but elegant forest green cotton dress. She stood up, and the stone floor cold against her bare feet. She flung her arms around Jareth, and he responded in kind, although he did not say anything.

"Jareth?" Sarah asked in surprise, looking at him. While by now she had experience puzzling out his emotions from his voice, she had nothing useful to draw on for assistance interpreting his facial expressions.

He smiled at her. "Yes," he said softly. "So you can."

His voice was mixed. Glad, but with a bittersweet part.

Sarah frowned, and tried to remember where she was in the story. She realized that she couldn't remember her dreams at all last night-- it was as though she hadn't dreamt at all-- a first since she had arrived here.

"We were in the middle of the battle," Sarah recalled, deciding to continue the story and see if that would cheer Jareth up. She settled into his lap as she drew her breath to continue.

And stopped.

"So, so then..." she trailed off. She thought for a moment, closing her eyes to see if the darkness would help. "Then we--"

"No, Sarah, stop." Sarah turned to look at Jareth again. He definitely looked troubled, which she could not understand. She could finally see, the sun was shining, and they were in a _room_-- which was certainly more than they'd had before, an ex-Goblin King without a kingdom and girl gone crazy.

She traced a finger along the worried line across his forehead. He really was beautiful. "What is it?" she asked. "I'm sorry I can't think of anything just now-- I suppose it's the shock of finally being able to see after so long--"

"No." He cut her off again. He sighed deeply and looked away from her. Puzzled, Sarah leaned over the arm of the chair to look into his face, a playful expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, trying to smile brightly at him, though she was becoming worried at his strange responses.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth, Sarah. You'll get all of it now, I promise."

"You were still lying to me?" Sarah pushed away from him abruptly. She stood up and turned to look at him straight on.

"I had to." His face looked weary, and the last part he whispered, not in the taunting whispers he'd once used, but instead in broken tones. "I'm so sorry."

She waited for him to explain, but he was silent, and eventually she tightened her fist in frustration. "Well, what _is _it?"

"Your storytelling, Sarah. It's over."

"Okay..." she trailed off. "I don't understand. You want me to stop with the story? That's fine, of course-- we have other things to do now--"

"It's not that I want you to stop," he stood abruptly and brushed passed the very confused girl in front of him, striding over to look out of the window. He refused to look her way. "It's that you can't anymore."

Sarah stared, uncomprehending. "What?"

Jareth answered quickly, loudly, as though he were trying to force the words out as quickly as possible to get it over with. "_Your imagination is gone!_"

"That's ridiculous!" she exclaimed as she walked after him, to place a hand on his shoulder and look out of the window with him. The view outside the window was beautiful-- overlooking a meadow, with greener grass than Sarah remembered it ever being, and a brook, and a forest in the distance. "Here, I'll show you. We were in the fortress of the evil King, and..." she trailed off, frustrated to find that absolutely nothing sprung to her mind. "I'm just having a little block is all," she tried to justify her lapse, keeping her voice light, though as she spoke without realizing it she grabbed the cloth of her dress and twisted it in her fists anxiously.

Jareth took both of his hands in hers, pulling them gently away from her, holding them in his carefully. "I wish I could have told you," he explained softly.

She shook her head. "What happened?"

Jareth dropped her hands and pressed both of his hands against his face, drawing a very deep breath and letting it out as his hands slid down his face. He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then closed his eyes and dropped his head again, returning his gaze to Sarah's eyes.

She had not seen his eyes in a very long time, and they were mesmerizing. She stood there staring into them for several long moments.

"I told you, my land was destroyed," he was so quiet that she had to strain to hear him. "The only way to rebuild it was-- was you."

"How?" was all she could manage.

"By your imagination, of course. Your dreams. I had to take you to this place-- it was dark, completely, and empty of almost everything except for a few surfaces-- and use your-- your fantasies, your whims, your wishes and dreams, your thoughts and the wild carefree inventions of your mind, your stories, fairy tales, capacity for creation. More than that-- your emotions, thoughts, your hate, your love. I had to take that and channel it into a new world, a new kingdom."

Sarah could hear her heart thumping quickly in her chest. She crossed her arms and uncrossed them again, tearing her gaze from his, turning to pace away from him, terrified of what she would hear. He was simply silent, waiting for her to ask him to confirm what she was dreading. Finally, from a different corner of the room, while she stared at the wall, she did. "And to do that, it had to be taken out of me, is that it?"

He did not answer, and his silence was all the answer she needed.

She nodded tearfully and looked over at him. "Why-- if you took my emotions, why am I crying?" she asked, gasping around the tears. "How can I think? Am I about to just pop out of existence?"

"Sarah, Sarah, no!" Jareth crossed the room in a few long paces and wrapped his arms around her again, kissing her hair. He took a single finger and put it under her chin, forcing her to look at him. He leaned over and kissed two of her tears. "Sarah," he said, "you can still feel, you can stilll think. You do still have your emotions, your intellect. Those haven't been taken from you."

"Just... my imagination."

He simply nodded. There was nothing that he could say that would mean anything just then. She leaned against him and cried, long, deeply, for what had been her most prized possession but had now been stolen from her by... by this man... the man she loved.

Did she?

Finally, after she had wept so many tears that she did not have any left, she wiped her eyes and, avoiding his gaze, spoke again. "What now?"

"We live here," he told her gently, taking her by the hands and leading her to the window again so that they could see out of it into the world. "In this land that you created. Not everything is the same-- the story itself isn't happening, we don't have to battle an evil King from another realm," his voice was teasing as he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. He leaned over, pressing his cheek against hers as they both looked out at the view below. "Thankfully. You had in mind all along that we would win, so that is the past of our world. But the setting-- it's as you imagined it."

"Then-- it's not _real_?" she asked as she watched the water gently bubbling its way down a small waterfall.

"No, it's real," he assured her, squeezing her gently. "It's as real as the Labyrinth was. All the people in it are real, they think and feel as much as you or I do."

"There are people here?" she asked. "Where?"

"Oh, around," he said. "This kingdom is a lot bigger than we can see here."

She did not answer him for a long while, as she was still trying to think of a story. She kept beginning one only to remember that it was a fairy tale she had heard before, and it was not coming from her. "I-- what am I? Am _I_ real?"

"Yes," was all he said. She could hear the emotion in his voice and twisted to look at him, finally, look at him. She loved him, and she could hear from his voice that he loved her.

She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. She didn't know that it was worth it, to lose the ability to create. But then, she thought, turning around again to look out over the meadow and off into the distance, who had ever thought that in her lifetime she would manage to create something as grand as this?

"What about my family? Dad, Toby, Merlin... Karen?" she asked. "What will they think when I'm gone?"

Jareth let out a soft, regretful sigh and began stroking her hair again, just as he had in the very beginning, when all was dark and she was still crazy. "It's as though you never were, my love," he told her. "You are faintly remembered in your world as a legend-- a heroine in a fantasy world. That's all you ever were there."

"No—no, I lived there for fifteen years!" Sarah argued with him. "I had a family, and friends. A dog."

"That is what you remember. They do not remember ever having a daughter, a stepdaughter, a sister, an owner, a friend, Sarah Williams. You have become separate from their world."

Though Sarah had believed that she had been out of tears, realizing that her mother and her father did not even remember that she ever existed was too much to bear. She fell to the ground, too suddenly for Jareth to stop her. He just stroked her back as her shoulders shook.

"Dear, sweet Sarah," he whispered to her. "Please-- it's okay. I promise. You have me. I can love you more than you've ever dreamed of. We are the King and Queen of a beautiful new world, a world of your creation. Think of all the people here-- they wouldn't exist if not for you. Would you wish that on them?"

Sarah shook her head and finally became silent, all tears ceasing, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "No," she said. "I wouldn't."

But she remembered the story she had told. She remembered all the way back to the night she'd run the Labyrinth, what she had said to Toby. 'But what no one knew was that The Goblin King fell in love with her and gave her certain powers.' Then, in her tale, how Jareth had been brooding over her, broken hearted.

How, somehow in there, her story had become a love story.

"The subjects," she said slowly, "who live in this world. Do they know they've only just been created?"

Jareth shook his head. "No, they don't."

"So they have memories of things that have never happened."

Jareth nodded, looking puzzled. "Yes, why?"

She just shook her head and forced a smile. "Nothing."

He smiled back at her, and offered her a hand to help her up.

She accepted. They stood for a moment, by the window, collecting themselves.

"What do we _do_ now?" Sarah asked him finally.

"What does anyone ever do?" he asked her, guiding her to the door so that they could explore their castle. "You could never answer what would happen, eventually, what really happens in that happily ever after. The love never had enough passion to take away the boredom, your need for more adventure, more excitement, more _life_. I promise you, Sarah, I will never let that happen. My passion for you will last _forever_."

They stepped out into the hallway. A maid was walking by and curtseyed at them smartly, then went about her business, and it really was obvious that she had no idea that she had been created only a few minutes before.

"But is that because this is so much more," Sarah asked slowly, "or because I no longer have the creativity to imagine all that I think I want? Have I had my dreams fulfilled, or... or lost what it means to have them?"

She gasped as Jareth roughly whirled her around so that she faced him. His eyes bored into hers.

"They've been fulfilled," he told her savagely. He growled low in his throat and pulled her close to him, leaning in and to kiss her for the first time (how could this be their first kiss?). His lips were soft, gentle yet demanding as he parted her lips with his tongue, deepening the kiss until she was dizzy from the pure raw passion.

Then he pulled away and gave her a wildly intense look. All Sarah could do was stare at him, dazed. He slipped his arm around her and they began to walk down the corridor again.

She knew that she could never ask that question of him again. It would infuriate him, agonize him, drive him mad with guilt, to think that she thought she had lost her ability to dream. To think that their love was the product of some fantasy story.

Yet, walking down the hallway with the man she loved, as a queen living in a castle in a dream world of her creation, she knew that she would never quite be sure whether she had attained her dreams, or lost them forever.

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Fin

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A/N: (hides and gets ready for the stream of hate mail)

Thank you so, so very much to my reviewers. You are great. I write some fandoms where I'm lucky if I get two or three reviews per chapter, so this constant stream of response was really exciting. So thank you to everyone I've mentioned so far, and for last chapter:

**LakeOfFire**- so, after having read it, would you have preferred shoddily written porn? Was Jareth too sappy and romantic? ;) **Rai Medvedsky**- I'm sure that's where I got the idea, though I didn't realize it until you pointed it out! **WhiteRoseWithering**- I don't know, I know I'd have a lot more trouble telling what a character does to that person… **Masako Moonshade**-after getting your review, I thought about it, and came up with several possible explanations. However, I've decided not to make any of them canon to the story. In a fic filled with insanity, surrealism, and just plain bizarreness, I think there should be a few things unanswered. **Forevermore33**, **anon**-good to hear that it seemed somewhat seemless, **Lady Kiren**- no, this was the end ;), **crystal13moon**. And, of course, to everyone who has reviewed the other chapters, and who will review this one.  



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